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Windhoek station at night, with the overnight 'Starline'
train to Keetmanshoop about to depart.
Photo courtesy of Rashid Khan.

There are
no international ferry links to Namibia, but it's
possible to travel between Namibia and South Africa by
train with only one relatively short section now sadly
involving a bus. It's also possible to travel
between Namibia and Zimbabwe or Zambia by bus.

Cape Town
or Johannesburg ► Windhoek

From Cape Town: Step 1, travel from Cape Town to Kimberley by Shosholoza Meyl Tourist class passenger train, departing
Cape Town 10:00 on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays, arriving
Kimberley at 03:46 next morning - please check the latest
times & days of running on the
South Africa page, as I won't always remember to
update this page when it changes. This is a comfortable
and safe tourist class train, with 2-berth & 4-berth
sleepers and restaurant car. As you leave Cape
Town you get great views of table Mountain, pass through
Stellenbosch & Paarl wine country, then into the veldt
up the Hex River pass, with great scenery! Fare
210 Rand (£15 or US$30) including sleeper. Stay a
day or two in Kimberley (visit the mining museum!).
See the South Africa page
for more information (and photos) about Shosholoza Meyl
passenger trains, and book by phone as shown or at the
station.

From Johannesburg: Step 1, travel from
Johannesburg to Kimberley by Shosholoza Meyl passenger
train, departing Johannesburg at 12:30 on Tues, Wed, Fri & Sun, arriving Kimberley at
21:20 the same day - please
check the latest times & days of running on the
South Africa page, as I
won't always remember to update this page when it
changes.
This is a comfortable and safe tourist class train, with
2-berth & 4-berth sleepers and restaurant car.
Fare 110 Rand (£8 or US$15). Stay a night or two
in Kimberley (visit the mining museum!).
See
the South Africa page
for more information (and photos) about Shosholoza Meyl
passenger trains and book by phone as shown or at the
station.

Step 2, travel from Kimberley to Keetmanshoop by
bus, as sadly things have degenerated so there's now
only a bus link, no longer any civilised train.
The bus is run by InterCape, runs on Fridays & Sundays
at 11:40 arriving Upington at 16:30 the same day, you
need to switch buses departing Upington 18:30 and
arriving Keetmanshoop 00:25 the same night.
Fare 390-500 Rand (£28-£36 or $56-$72). Check
times & book
online at
www.intercape.co.za. Stay overnight at
Keetmanshoop.

Step 3, travel from Keetmanshoop to Windhoek by
StarLine
passenger train. The train leaves Keetmanshoop
daily except Saturdays at
18:50, arriving in Windhoek at 07:00 next day. The train is modern
&
air-conditioned, with reclining seats in Business Class
& Economy class, also basic 6-berth
sleepers on Tue, Thur & Sun, see photos
& information
below. Fare around N$93 (£8 or US$13).
See the StarLine timetable. Note that a train
used to run from Upington to Keetmanshoop twice a week
to connect with this overnight train to Windhoek (and is
till shown as running in the un-updated 2006 timetable
on the StarLine website), but this train now only runs
from Karasburg (just inside the Namibian frontier) to
Keetmanshoop, so you may as well switch from bus to
train at Keetmanshoop.

Windhoek ►
Cape Town or Johannesburg

Step 1, travel from Windhoek to Keetmanshoop by
StarLine
passenger train. The train leaves Windhoek at
19:40 daily except Saturdays, arriving
Keetmanshoop at 07:00 next morning,
see the StarLine timetable.
The train is modern and air-conditioned, with reclining
seats in Business Class & Economy Class, also basic
6-bunk sleepers on Mon, Wed, Fri. Fare around N$87
(£5 or US$10). Spend the day in Keetmanshoop.

Step 2, travel from Keetmanshoop to Kimberley by bus,
as sadly things have degenerated and there's now only a
bus link. The bus is run by InterCape, departs
Keetmanshoop on Wednesdays & Fridays at 23:15, you need
to switch buses at Upington (arrive 06:15, depart
07:30), and you arrive arriving
Kimberley at 12:40 on Thursdays & Saturdays. Fare
390-500 Rand
(£28-£36 or $56-$72). Check times & book online at
www.intercape.co.za. Stay overnight at
Kimberley.

Step 3, travel from Kimberley to Cape Town by Shosholoza Meyl passenger train, departing
Kimberley at 21:20 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays & Sundays, arriving Cape
Town at 15:30 the next day - please check the latest
times & days of running on the
South Africa page, as I won't always remember to
update this page when it changes. This is a comfortable and
safe tourist class train, with 2-berth & 4-berth
sleepers and restaurant car. You leave Cape Town
with great views of table Mountain, passing through
Stellenbosch & Paarl wine country, then into the veldt,
with great scenery! Fare 210 Rand (£15 or US$30)
including sleeper.
See
the South Africa page for more information (and
photos) about Shosholoza Meyl passenger trains and book
by phone or at the station.

Alternative step 3, travel from Kimberley to Johannesburg by Shosholoza Meyl
passenger train, departing Kimberley at 03:46 on Mondays,
Thursdays, Saturdays & Sundays, arriving Johannesburg at 12:16 the same
day - please check the latest times & days of running on
the South Africa page, as
I won't always remember to update this page when it
changes. This is a comfortable and safe tourist class
train, with 2-berth & 4-berth sleepers and restaurant
car. Fare 110 Rand (£8 or US$15). See
the South Africa page for more information (and
photos) about Shosholoza Meyl passenger trains and book
by phone or at the station.

Business
Class & Economy reclining seats: StarLine trains have Business Class & Economy
Class reclining
airline-style seats in relatively modern, air-conditioned cars,
complete with TV entertainment (but don't expect too
much of the latter!).
There are
vending machines but no restaurant or buffet car, so take your own
food and drink. These passenger trains also
include freight wagons.

Sleepers: There are
generally no sleepers on these StarLine trains,
with one exception. The
Windhoek-Keetmanshoop train has a basic
sleeping car attached on every second departure, theoretically Tue,
Thur & Sun from Keetmanshoop, Mon, Wed & Fri from
Windhoek. This sleeper has 6-bunk couchette-style
compartments in both Economy and Business classes,
prices are the same as for a seat. No bedding is provided,
so bring your own as it can get cold in the desert.
See Rashid Khan's account of StarLine sleepers in the
travellers reports section.

A StarLine train at Windhoek railway station.

Photo courtesy of
Ishizaki, Naoichi

Business class reclining seats on a StarLine train.
Photo courtesy of
Ishizaki, Naoichi

The Desert
Express...

TransNamib
also operate a weekly tourist-orientated train between
Windhoek & Swakopmund called the Desert Express.
The train has sleepers (with en suite shower/toilet), a
restaurant, bar & lounge. Their original site
www.desertexpress.com.na no longer seems to be
working, try
www.transnamib.com.na/desert-express.html - although this too may not now be
working!

Traveller Catherine Albers reports (2013): "My StarLine train (on a Thursday night)
from Windhoek to Walvis Bay was busier than I had expected probably because it was during school holidays
and it was Heroes Day the following Monday. There were quite a few families on
board. There is still a vending machine and, much to my surprise both ladies
and gents toilets. Old but clean even at 3.30am on a busy train.The
person who checked the ticket as I went onto the platform also fulfilled various
roles on the train - checking tickets, showing the videos, getting people down
from the luggage racks, and generally keeping order! After the two videos were
finished he reorganised the first class passengers so that there was a row of
empty seats in front of everyone. He folded the backs of these down onto the
seats to act as foot rests. He then reclined our seats to around 140 degrees so
we had some semblance of a bed. In the middle of the night the East and
Westbound trains pass and stop alongside each other briefly. The ticket
collectors/guards swap trains and return to their home towns. We
arrived at Walvis Bay at around 9am an hour or so late. It was a great journey
and the ticket collector we had for the first half of the journey was
fantastic."

Traveller Luke Addis reports: "Despite many of
the locals not knowing the existence of Namibian
Starline night trains, we headed off to the charming
German station at Windhoek to get tickets. Open from 3pm
on a Sunday. Tickets easily bought for 116N$. Pretty
amazed when we turned up that night to find that only
one solitary carriage would take us to Swakopmund. A DVD
player was brought 5 minutes before scheduled departure
and we headed off into the night after a lot of shunting
onto our freight train we would adjoin. The business
class seats were ripped out of the Air Namib plane's
first class section and come complete with 1989
In-flight magazines which is a quirk. Toilets are clean,
a DVD shows and a vending machine provides snacks. Not
many people on and the journey was slow but we arrived
on time and well-rested. The Business class seats have
an arm-rest in-between so if you don't think your
service will be busy ( few are) then in economy you will
get two seats to lie down on (adjustable armrests!).
Our return was only 66N$ from Walvis Bay. Different
seats in business but we opted for economy this time and
got a better sleep. Very friendly ticket attendants and
doors can be opened for air as you pass through the
mighty sand-dunes. Some Christian hymns were playing on
the TV loudly but it put me to sleep eventually. Service
arrived into Windhoek about 40 minutes late which isn't
too bad. Some points - the waiting rooms at Walvis Bay
and Windhoek are sheltered and safe, offer charging
facilities as well as a place to rest if your trains
arrives at an anti-sociable hour. Namibia is fortunately
still enthusiastic about its railway heritage, and it's
staff are friendly and its full of little quirks ( two
trains per night with one carriage each on a freight
train!). If you enjoy the experience, a visit to the
Windhoek Rail Museum (top floor of station) is
thoroughly recommended!"

Traveller
Rich Perkons used StarLine from Walvis Bay to Windhoek in
Feb 2009: "Although there is only one train a
day, Walvis Bay ticket office is open all day, but
closes a couple of hours before the train leaves.
My train was a single coach attached to 22 petrol
tankers, a few box cars and a couple of flatbed trucks.
Despite the slow speed, a two-hour delay in leaving and
clunky-ness, the journey was fine and we arrived 30mins
early. Tickets get collected around 3am after the
train crew switches so don't loose your ticket."

Traveller
Alexander Bradley used StarLine from Windhoek to
Swakopmund in June 2008: We called the
reservation line and they told us they couldn’t take our
reservation and that we needed to go to a station and
book. Arriving at the German-inspired Windhoek
Station we booked our ticket from Windhoek to Swakopmund
for the following day and were told to arrive half an
hour before departure. Arriving at the platform
there were three individual carriages lined up on the
platform, the first to Walvis Bay and last to
Keetmanshoop, the middle one had the lights switched
off. We climbed onboard the Walvis Bay carriage
and walked down the aisle past the economy class seats,
past the drinks and snacks machine and the toilets to
the business class section. There were 12 business class
seats in the section; we occupied two with another
lady behind us, the economy section was half full.
The seats were 4 across in both business and economy,
but the business seats were larger, higher and more
padded. The engine coupled to the train at 19:45,
ten minutes before departure. The conductor came
on board and checked our tickets before switching on the
DVD player. They showed two films before we all
fell asleep, although the speakers were a little too
soft with the clickety-clack of the train and it became
too soft to hear, and too loud to not watch. The
lights were out for the DVD, but I could turn on my
reading light. The train departed at 20:05, ten
minutes after the scheduled time and we were full steam
ahead for five minutes before the train turned around
and spent half an hour coupling to about 15 wagons
including box cars, steel pipes and petrol between us
and the engine. There was space above our seats
for our baggage and the conductor sat in business call
behind us so we felt quite safe. The seats were
comfortable and the air con/ heater were keeping us at a
good temperature during the night, although we brought
out our own blanket to be extra warm. We woke at about
06:00 and became very worried that we had slept in and
missed our stop at 05:20 and that we were continuing
onto Walvis Bay. We were relieved when we found
that our train was running late. We arrived at
Swakopmund 06:35, 1h15m late. The sun rose just as we
arrived in Swakopmund and we were able to see the
landscape for the first time during the trip.
Photo courtesy of Alexander Bradley.

Traveller
Rashid Khan has used the Keetmanshoop-Windhoek train on many
occasions: "I've taken the Keetmanshoop-Windhoek "Starline" train
close to 20 times now. Pricing ranges from $N80 up to $N130
depending on class (business is $N20 extra) and time of
year, off peak, peak and peak peak. School breaks are
peak. There is indeed a
sleeper scheduled to be on that train every Monday,
Wednesday & Friday. In general, the Keetmanshoop to
Windhoek train should have a sleeper every Tuesday,
Thursday & Sunday. I say "in general" because this
schedule, although printed on posters, is definitely not
adhered to. There will be often be no sleeper when there
should be, and be one when there shouldn't be. The
likelihood of a sleeper seems to follow the school break
schedule aka more likely around peak time. If you want a
sleeper, and make no mistake, you definitely do, ask and
then ask again, scheduled or not.

A bit about the sleeper: A sleeper bunk is the same
price as a seat. All compartments are the same size,
with 6 berths arranged 3 bunks per side. None of the
sleeper cars are air-con, no bedding is provided. The
middle bunk folds down to become a back rest, with the
lowest bunk being the bottom of the seat. The top bunk
is fixed and always available for sleeping. The bottom
bunk is flat with no real falling-off protection. The
middle bunk, when raised, slopes in slightly, with a
small bump of lip to keep you in. The top has a board to
keep you in - I could see this being quite uncomfortable
for a larger person. There are no assigned seats/bunks
in the sleepers, only an assigned cabin, its
first-come-first-serve from there.
My favourite bunk in any cabin is the top bunk closest
towards the front. The bottom bunks get a very cold
breeze. A blanket or sleeping bag is required on the
train ANY time of year. Desert nights are cold.
There are a number of different sleeper cars that run,
they're all similar, however there are 2 different
classes of car. Economy sleepers: These have padded bunks with a vinyl covering.
In general the cabins do not have doors, though
sometimes they do, but don't count on it. The doors in
economy class are not maintained and can be difficult to
open/close. Business class sleepers: N$20 extra. These have slightly thicker
padding and a fabric covering. Business class has a
small table and a ladder to reach the top bunk. The
doors for these cabins are in better working order. Note
that a door does not mean privacy. Staff does not knock
before using the key to enter, and I've had security
guards come in just to hang out, eat and talk at 3am
when I'm trying to be fast asleep. The main benefit of
the door is to keep out the noise and cigarette smoke
from the hall. While there are lots of "No Smoking"
signs the rule is not enforced.
Even if there isn't a sleeper you are welcome to "go
upstairs" in the standard cars if there's room. Upstairs
you say? Luggage rack. I've done this a few times, and
while it isn't padded it is flat and sturdy. The staff
suggested it and I find it more comfortable than the
chairs.
Only business class, the front section of a chair car,
is air-con. The movies shown in the chair cars tend to
be be really really bad kung fu flicks, but if you bring
your own DVD they'll put it in for you! Fun fact: They
once showed a movie called "Lasko: Death Train".

More
information...

If
anyone has any more information or travel reports that would be useful for
this page, please
e-mail me!

◄◄
Hotel search & price comparison.

www.hotelscombined.com
checks all the main hotel booking sites at once to find the widest choice of
hotels & the cheapest seller. It was named as the World's Leading Hotel
Comparison Site at the World Travel Awards 2013 and I highly recommend it, both
to find hotels in even the smallest places and to check that another retailer
isn't selling your hotel for less!

www.booking.com
is my favourite booking site. It's really clear and you can usually book with free
cancellation and so confirm your accommodation at no risk months before train
booking opens.

Other hotel sites
worth trying...

www.tripadvisor.com
is the place to find
independent travellers' reviews of all the main hotels.

www.booking.com is my own preferred hotel booking system
(Hotels Combined being a search/comparison system). It
has a simple interface, a good selection in most countries
worldwide, useful online customer reviews of each hotel, and
decent prices, usually shown inclusive of unavoidable extras
such as taxes (a pet hate of mine is systems that show one
price, then charge you another!).

Backpacker hostels...

www.hostelbookers.com: If you're on a tight budget,
don't forget about backpacker hostels. Hostelbookers
offers online booking of cheap private rooms or dorm beds in
backpacker hostels in most
cities at rock-bottom prices.

Travel
insurance

Take out decent travel insurance, it's essential...

Never travel overseas without travel insurance from a reliable
insurer, with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover. It should also cover
cancellation and loss of cash and belongings, up to a sensible
limit.
An annual
multi-trip policy is usually cheaper than several single-trip
policies even for just 2 or 3 trips
a year, I have an annual policy myself. Here are some suggested insurers.
Seat61 gets a small commission if you buy through these
links.

Carry a spare credit card, designed for foreign travel with no currency
exchange loading & low or no ATM fees...

It costs nothing to take out an extra credit card.
If you keep it in a different part of your luggage so you're
not left stranded if
your wallet gets stolen, this is a form of extra travel insurance in itself. In addition,
some credit cards are significantly better for
overseas travel than others. Martin Lewis's
www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money
explains which UK credit cards have the lowest currency
exchange commission loadings when you buy something
overseas, and the lowest cash withdrawal fees when you use
an ATM abroad. Taking this advice can save you quite a
lot on each trip compared to using your normal high-street
bank credit card!

You can avoid ATM charges and expensive exchange rates with a
Caxton FX euro currency Visa Card, or their
multi-currency 'Global Traveller' Visa Card, see
www.caxtonfx.com for info.

Get an international SIM card
to save on mobile data and phone calls...

Mobile phones can cost a fortune to use abroad, and if you're
not careful you can return home to find a huge bill.
Consider
buying a global pre-paid SIM card for your mobile phone from
www.Go-Sim.com, which can slash costs by up to 85%. Go-Sim
cuts call costs in 175 countries worldwide,
and you can receive incoming calls and texts for free in 75 countries. It's pay-as-you-go, so no nasty bills
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expire if it's not used between trips, unlike some
others, so a Go-Sim phone number becomes your 'global phone
number' for life.